Monk happy to stop the rot

Swansea boss Garry Monk praised his players for standing up to the pressure after claiming a first win in six Barclays Premier League games.

Wilfried Bony’s brace saw off Leicester at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday evening as a 2-0 victory ended a frustrating run of results and took Swansea back into the top six.

“It was about getting three points as we could feel that little bit of pressure on us within the crowd and amongst the players,” Monk said.

“It was never going to be easy, especially when Leicester threw caution to the wind, and we could have controlled the ball a bit better in the second half, but I thought we deserved it.

“We limited them to shots from distance which is credit to the shape we’ve been working on and how hard defensively we’ve been working.

“Three goals we’ve conceded in the last two games – two against Newcastle and the second one against Stoke – has not been the standard we’ve set but we got back to that to keep a clean sheet.”

Bony scored in each half to make it four goals in his last three games and after a sluggish start to the season the Ivory Coast powerhouse now appears back to his best.

But Monk said he had no concerns about Bony even when he wasn’t scoring as his all-round game was of a high standard.

“All strikers go through the moments when they score and when they don’t score,” Monk said.

“I know all strikers are judged on goals but what’s important is what they contribute to the team and Wilf has always contributed to the team when he’s not been scoring.

“It’s also important to have threats from everywhere and not from just one area.

“We can’t just rely on Wilfried for the goals, we need the whole team to contribute this season and they did that.

“When the chances are not flowing, as they weren’t in this game, you’ve got to be clinical and both goals were well-worked with good finishes at the end.”

Leicester have now gone four games without a win since their memorable 5-3 defeat of Manchester United over a month ago and manager Nigel Pearson admitted his side had made too many mistakes to stop that run.

“We didn’t perform as well as we should have done and didn’t manage the ball well enough,” Pearson said.

“You can ill-afford to make too many unforced errors and we did too many, it made it a frustrating afternoon for the players.

“It was disappointing and the bottom line is our baseline performance has to be better. I didn’t feel we really gave as much as we could do to stay in the game and that is the biggest disappointment.”

Pearson said Leicester had questioned the size of the goal posts before kick-off after his goalkeepers had raised some concerns, but the match officials said it was not a problem.

“The goalkeepers felt they were a bit high,” Pearson said. “I thought it was in everyone’s best interest to get it checked and it was quite light-hearted.

“The officials were slightly surprised, but everything was fine. I could have done with it being a bit smaller!

“It is very easy to look at the goals and lay the blame for defeats but ultimately what you do with the ball when you have it is equally important, if not more.

“We didn’t do enough with the ball and then it becomes a frustrating day.”